The Key To Me

“…each of us holds the key to our own freedom…you are the gatekeeper of your own happiness.”

Angel Kyodo Williams

I read a book by Ms Kyodo Williams and I admired the book, but, as with all books, I have this habit of pulling out parts and worrying the meaning out of them. In this case I am wondering what the writer means.

If I hold the key to my own freedom wouldn’t I know that? A key unlocks stuff. There is the word Key as in the test answers. Teachers use a key to sore tests. The key in the case of teachers is a document that contains the correct answers to a test. There might be some way of applying the key definition as it applies to teachers, but mostly, I think the key here is like a piece of metal that, inserted into a lock will lift the appropriate spring levers that release a lock. If the lock and key image is correct, then once the lock is unlocked you are no longer restricted, you are no longer confined.

The second part of the Kyodo Williams quote says that we are the gatekeeper of our own happiness. I hear gatekeeper, but I think “prison guard.” What it seems like she is saying is that the person that keeps you imprisoned, the person that has the power to keep the gate closed or to open the gate, the guardian of your confinement is YOU.

In other words, if I feel imprisoned in misery, I need to recognize that I am the person keeping me confined with misery. I need to realize that I have the power to release myself to freedom and happiness.

If Ms. Kyodo Williams is right, I think she is only partly right. If I am the one keeping me locked in a cell with unhappiness, then yeah, logically, it would seem like that situation should not exist, yet it does exist.

Now why would this situation exist? Why would anyone confine themselves to a melancholy existence, when I have the power to release myself to a life of joy? What I’m thinking is that it is just not that simple. If I am the gatekeeper keeping myself locked up then there must be something causing me to do what it is illogical for me to do. Why would anyone be so restrictive and uncooperative with themselves?

I mean, really, if I have the power to allow myself to be happy, then why don’t I?

Obviously if I am in the position to free myself, and I won’t do it, there has to be some reason. There has got to be some cause. Perhaps it is some chemical imbalance, or post traumatic stress thing, or bipolar problem, or schizophrenia, or something along those lines.

Perhaps Ms Kyodo Williams is saying that we have the power to release ourselves from our self-imposed prison of sadness, we don’t realize it, and so we need to work on recognizing that we are the source of our own problems, and we are the solution to our own problems.